Open Wounds
by Digital Tempest
Summary: Raven has a nightmare about his past, realizing that he still has many demons to battle.


**Title:** Open Wounds  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Author:** [Tempest][1]  
**Author's Notes:**As usual, I would never wish this upon the characters henceforth mentioned in this story. Thanks Faust for helping me write this. Mucho gracias, Faust!   
**Disclaimer:**I don't own anyone from the WWF. Besides if you sue me you will get **nothing**. I'm a broke college student. I don't make money off this. :)   
**Distribution:** If you take it tell me, please.  
**archived:** [wwfdiva.port5.com][2]  
*denotes thought

//denotes song Crawling - Linkin Park 

* * * * *

_//Crawling in my skin  
These wounds, they will not heal  
Fear is how I fall  
Confusing what is real//_

He was in an empty dressing room. The room was dimly lit. The air held an eerie scent. He strained his ears trying to hear the usual sounds of cheerfulness. Nothing. For the first time he felt a little scared being there by himself. He walked out of the dressing room into the dark corridor, to him it looked like it was at least a mile long with hundreds of doors lining both sides. He didn't see anyone. Where was he? Where was everyone else? He stalked down the corridor straining his his eyes in the low light. He decided it was all one big joke. They were all just doing this to get to him. 

He opened one of the doors. He covered his eyes as bright light flooded out of the room almost blinding him. He moved his hand and peeped into the room. What he saw made his hands fly to his mouth. There was a table in the room. The table was badly scuffed and marked. It looked like the table had been through 3 wars. There were four chairs surrounding it. They were not in much better condition than the table. There was a young boy crouching behind one of the decrepit chairs. He couldn't have been more than 3 or 4. His brown hair was short and wavy. The child was naked except for a pair of dingy Scooby-Doo underwear. There were bruises on his back contrasting with the boy's pale skin. Tears were coursing down the young boy's face. Raven watched in horror as a slim woman ran into the kitchen. She had long flowing hair that was wavy like the young boy's hair. She picked the boy up, but quickly sat him back down as a huge man entered the scene. It was obvious he was mad. The man was big. He wasn't fat just big. His face was livid as he reached for the woman and caught her arm. He slapped her. Raven flinched, but he couldn't look away. He screamed at the woman, but Raven couldn't hear what he was saying. The boy who ran back to the safety of the chair looked over at Raven. The man and women seemed oblivious to him, but the boy saw him. The boys eyes were dead. They sunk back into his head. It was Raven as a young boy. The couple fighting was his mother and father. He tried to walk into the door, but an invisible force held him back. Raven banged his fists against it crying out to the woman. The man raised his hand to hit her again. Suddenly, everything stopped. The man's hand just drifted in mid swing. There was fear branded on the woman's pale face, and angry distorted the man's face. Raven slammed the door shut and backed away from it. 

_//There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface  
Consuming, confusing  
This lack of self control I fear is never ending  
Controlling//_

Raven went further down the hall. He didn't know what to think. His father had been a drunk. He beat him and his mother often. He opened a door a couple of feet down from the first. He was in the living room. He was about 10 in this scene His father walked through the door. He stepped on one of the few toys that Raven owned. It was a red truck his mother had saved up to buy him for Christmas. It was the only Christmas present he had gotten that year. His father started yelling at him. His mother quickly ran into the room. His dad was starting to stalk menacingly towards him. His mother grabbed his arm trying to keep him from hurting him. His dad pushed her brutally back. She got up and ran to Raven. She covered his small body with her own as his father began to pummel her frail body with fists. She covered him taking the blows with a silent cry. This only made his father angry. The scene froze again. 

Raven walked a few doors down. He had to see more even though he didn't want to see it. He _**had**_ to. He sighed deeply and opened the next door. Raven had just walked into the door of the house. He was 16 here. He was late for curfew, but he doubted his father would even notice. He was wrong his father was waiting in a chair for him. The room was dark. Raven was taken by surprise as his father slammed him against a wall. Raven slid down the wall and crawled into a corner. His father stood in front of him mocking him. The young Raven looked up fearfully, pulling his legs to his chest. He father was yelling. He couldn't hear it, but he didn't have to hear it to know what his father was saying. 

"Mommy can't protect you know, you pusy." His father said to him that night. 

Raven's mother had died the year before. 3 days after his 15th birthday. She had gotten real sick. She never got better and Raven didn't think she had wanted to get better. Raven tried to melt himself into the corner as his father continued to kick and hit him. From that day forth Raven promised himself he would never go through that again. He ran away that night. Raven closed the door softly as the feelings started to flood his body. He didn't want to see anymore. He didn't need to. He began to run down the long corridor. 

_//I can't seem  
To find myself again  
My walls are closing in  
(Without a sense of confidence I'm convinced that there's just too much pressure to take)  
I've felt this way before  
So insecure//_

He finally reached the end of the corridor. Still there was no one to be found. He was scared. He needed someone anyone. He heard his music hit. Did he have a match tonight? He walked from behind the curtain and started down the ramp. It was quiet. He looked around him. Where there should have been happy, vivrant people, there was nothing more than plastic dummies with a fixed smile on their face. They seemed to taunt him. 

"You're nothing, Raven. You couldn't even defend youself against your father. You're the reason why you mother died." They seemed to say to him. 

The rings was dark. There was a single spotlight shining in the middle. He couldn't see his oppenent. A hand reached out and punched him across the face sending him sprawling back. 

"You thought you could get away from me that easy? Huh, son?" 

"Dad?" Raven whispered as he saw his dad step into the light. 

Rave jumped up as anger overtook him. Everytime he lashed out at his father he father acted unfazed. Raven ran out of the ring. 

"Where ya going, son?" His father called after him. 

_//Crawling in my skin  
These wounds, they will not heal  
Fear is how I fall  
Confusing what is real//_

As he walked outside alone the silence was deafening to her. He usually loved the quiet. He hated this silence. Not even the crickets were chirping. He usually saw night time as beautiful and peaceful but tonight it just seemed so erie. It made his skin crawl. He looked around as her warning level rose. He thought that he heard footsteps behind him, but that was all in his mind, right? He was just admittedly scared. The night seemed darker than usual. He looked up in the sky there was no a stars in the sky. He could see the bright, full moon peeking from behind a cloud. He didn't know where he was going, but he quickened his pace. The footstep that he thought he had imagined quickened behind him. He stopped and turned around tentatively. A knot formed in his throat as he spoke out. 

"H-hello," he heard his voice falter. "Is a-anyone there?" 

"Raven, where ya going? Come back. We have to talk." He heard his father say behind him and then his father let out a maniacal laugh. 

He turned and saw his father's jeering face. He reached for him. He dodged from his grasp as his legs gained a mind of their own, he turned and fled from him. He could hear him in hot pursuit behind her. He only became aware that the wind was blowing as she ran toward the graveyard. As he neared the gates he could feel his pulse scream. There was nowhere else for him to hide, now. If he wanted to find haven back at the arena he would have turn around and that would mean passing his father. It seemed as she neared the graveyard the wind blew harder and harder. Where had this graveyard come from? 

_//I can't seem  
To find myself again  
My walls are closing in  
(Without a sense of confidence I'm convinced that there's just too much pressure to take)  
I've felt this way before  
So insecure//_

His lungs were beginning to burn and he knew he wouldn't be able to run much longer. He was now in the graveyard. He slowed for a second to look around him. He saw a gravestone in the distance. It seemed to have the moonbeams bouncing off it giving it an unearthly glow. He walked toward it entranced. He forgot all about his father. Thunder rumbled in the distance the wind blew harder and a soft rain began to fall. He looked down at the headstone unable to make out the name on it. Lightening flashed above, as if granting him light to see. He saw a sole ominous word on the headstone. **RAVEN**. He fell to his knees as the tears formed in his eyes threatening to spill over. 

_//Crawling in my skin  
These wounds, they will not heal  
Fear is how I fall  
Confusing what is real//_

He became aware of his father creeping behind him. He didn't even turn around. The thunder roared loudly ahead of them, "Like an angry whore." He remembered his father saying one time about it. The rain fell steady now. His hair clung to his face and his forehead. He shook a wet strand of hair out of his eyes. 

"This is a helluva nightmare, isn't it dad?" Raven asked. 

He found this comment rather comical and chuckled a little. 

"It sure is." He hear his dad say as he felt two hands encircled his throat. 

He didn't struggle he started to feel the consciousness slipping from him. He beckoned it. He wanted it. His head lolled to the side as he saw his mother crying face loom in the darkness. She shook her head. She seemed to be telling him to fight it. Raven started to struggle but it was too late. He opened his mouth to scream. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Raven awoke from his dream. The scream caught in his throat. His face was wet from tears. Outside it was raining hard. He walked over to the window he thought he saw a man standing under the tree. Lightening lit up the sky. It was his father glaring back at him. He blinked his eyes then looked again. He saw nothing. He laid back in his bed, but he didn't go to sleep. He laid there waiting for a time when the demons would leave him. 

   [1]: mailto:msmocha@bellsouth.net
   [2]: http://wwfdiva.port5.com



End file.
